Yeah, that was a monster hit for sure! I kind of flinched to go that high (well, my actual final bid was considerable higher than the final price!
), but after well more than a decade of searching for this kit, I was not going to let this opportunity slip away. I may not live long enough to see another one come up!
I have seen photos of only one other Visible Astro kit, from the collection of another collector. Interesting thing is that, even with as short of production run this kit had (one year), his kit face card is a bit different from this one! So, there are variations, even with this kit!
I suspect this one to be the original face card design, as I can see this one comes with what would have been the early ‘anchor ring’ shock cord attachment method. From the photos of the other collector’s kit, his bag contains the later self-adhesive paper/foil shock cord mount.
Regrettable in this kit that the fins have been cut out, but I have another ‘regular’ Astro 1 kit from this era that contains an uncut fin sheet of this fin style (and yes, the Astro 1 had two slightly different fin platforms over the years).
Earl